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June/July 2024 IV MAGAZINE air for workers in a sector which is bouncing back after the difficult pandemic period. THE ‘OTHER’ MEASURES But it has to be said that the document did not confine itself to addressing only the, albeit pivotal and central, pay issue. In fact, the agreement also provides for the strengthening of supplementary health care. And not just that. Under the lens there is also a significant revision of the classification and grading of personnel, which have been at a standstill since the 1990s, which aims to bring these parameters more in line with the changing needs of the market and the new types of supply. Moreover, the text also includes the development of regulations on individual workers’ rights, incorporating measures to combat violence and harassment in the workplace and introducing the possibility of leave for female victims of violence. PRESIDIUM OF LEGALITY The renewal of this CLA, which is the third most applied labour contract in our country after the Tertiary Sector and the Metalmechanical Sector, is therefore an important result, which is also the result of long negotiationS: the previous agreement expired more than two and a half years ago. ‘To have signed it in this context, after the damage of so many recent emergencies,’ says Lino Enrico Stoppani , President of FIPE-Confcommercio, ‘is a sign of social responsibility, vision, technical competence and courage of all the parties present at the negotiating table. A virtuous mix that has resulted in a document that promises to be a compass for the entire sector. ‘The agreement,’ Stoppani explains, ‘constitutes a safeguard of legality in order to operate in the market with clear rules, improve the quality of services rendered to the community, and give greater protection to workers.’ PROSPECTS And it is clear that having defined the perimeter of the playing field can only be good for a sector that is crucial for the country’s entire economy. “The CLA,” Stoppani notes, “is an important signal to help strengthen the attractiveness of a production sphere that counts more than 54 billion euro of added value and is capable of developing an annual value of more than 100 billion euro, fitting right into an agri-food and tourism chain that weighs in at around 13% of the national GDP. But that is not all. In fact, the scope of this agreement promises not to stop there, representing a boost for the country’s entire economic system. “In addition to reinvigorating a sector that is a feather in our country’s cap,” Cristian Biasoni , FIPE-Confcommercio Vice President with responsibility for labour and President of Aigrim , the Association of Multi-localised Large-Scale Catering Enterprises, points out, “this agreement will lead to companies pouring more than 5 billion euros into the Italian economy over the next three and a half years. __________________________________ BOX The controversy of ANIR and ANGEM Not everyone subscribed to the new National Collective Labour Agreement. It was ANGEM and ANIR Confindustria, associations that together represent 70 per cent of the catering companies, which chose not to sign the document. Creating the impasse was the failure to accept the specific requests of this sector. ‘For a long time,’ says Massimo Piacenti , President of ANIR Confindustria, ‘we have been asking that, together with the revision of the CLA, the government discuss the revision of the Code of Contracts. And at the same time recognise the increase in costs incurred by our sector in the last two years, due to the increases in food and energy. Costs that the activities themselves have borne, without having the possibility to revise prices, especially in public service contracts.’ A critical context that, according to the two associations, should have been addressed in the framework of the contract renewal. However, this did not happen. Hence the non-signature. Accompanied by an appeal: ‘We urge,’ says Carlo Scarsciotti , President of ANGEM, ‘the Government and the Institutions to make the necessary changes to the Procurement Code, to include a real and effective revision of prices, and to introduce the mandatory application of the Minimum Environmental Criteria, defined at the time with a merely ideological approach without any demonstration of their real effectiveness on the sustainability front. Criteria, moreover, linked to cost increases unrelated to de facto fixed and historical contract prices.’ __________________________________ AT PAGE 18 FOCUS ON Peaches: the varieties that drive the fruit and vegetable economy 15 DIFFERENT VARIETIES, EACH WITH UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS. THE ITALIAN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SECTOR, SUPPORTED BY INNOVATION AND CENTURIES-OLD TRADITIONS, CONTINUES TO PROVIDE INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED HIGH-QUALITY PEACHES by Maddalena Baldini Belonging to the botanical family Rosaceae, Prunus persica is the official name of a fruit tree with ancient origins, more commonly known as the peach tree. The earliest records of this tree, whose fruit is world- famous, date back to China thousands of years before reaching, via a passage from Persia, Europe. It is mentioned in Rome in the 1st century A.D. but was already widespread in the Mediterranean basin at the time of Alexander the Great, in 300 B.C. For centuries, myths and legends have revolved around this tree and its fruit, but the important fact is that, today, peaches are among the most loved and widespread fruits, representing a significant share of the fruit and vegetable sector in Italy and beyond. HOW MANY AND WHICH VARIETIES EXIST IN ITALY? Today, there are 15 peach varieties in Italy, varying according to their distribution, shape, flesh, skin colour and consistency, both ancient varieties and those created from recent grafting: yellow peach, white